Thursday, October 1, 2026
Cindy Vaupel, a 27-year Rockville Centre resident and longtime community advocate who co-founded Raising Voices LI, later known as Raising Voices USA, died on July 19 after battling cancer for more than a year. She was 52.
Whether advocating for gun violence prevention, supporting local schools or encouraging residents to become more civically engaged, Vaupel dedicated herself to improving the lives of others. Family members, friends and colleagues remembered her as a compassionate leader whose quiet determination and ability to bring people together left a lasting mark on Rockville Centre.
Her path to activism began with a tragedy that struck close to home. On Dec. 14, 2012, 20 children and six educators were killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Vaupel, who grew up in nearby Danbury and was the mother of two young daughters, said the shooting resonated deeply.
After the 2016 presidential election, Vaupel and fellow Rockville Centre resident Emma Travers co-founded Raising Voices LI. The two had met while volunteering for the Francis F. Wilson Elementary School PTA. After the election, they began talking with neighbors looking for a constructive way to get involved.
"There were so many really upset women saying, 'What are we going to do?'" Travers recalled. "We started by writing an email to some friends saying, 'We don't know what we're going to do, but we should really try and do something.'"
One of Raising Voices LI's first public meetings drew about 200 people to South Side High School. The organization encouraged civic engagement through educational forums, voter registration drives, postcard-writing campaigns and community advocacy.
"It was very important to her that we were not political," Travers said of Vaupel. "We wanted it all to come from values rather than politics. If you happened to find a politician who matched your values, then that was where you should put your energy."
Travers said that Vaupel made sure every event inspired people to take meaningful action. "Every event, she wanted an action item to come out of it," Travers said. "She wanted people to say, 'You've learned all this tonight. Now go and do this.'"
Beyond Raising Voices LI, Vaupel devoted countless hours to the community. She served on the board of RVC Friends of MLK, helping expand educational and multicultural programming at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, and on the executive board of the Rockville Centre Education Foundation, which funds innovative classroom grants and educational opportunities throughout the school district.
Education Foundation Co-president Darren Raymar said Vaupel poured herself into everything she did.
"No matter what project Cindy took, whether it was PTA or Ed Foundation, she gave a thousand percent, had great ideas and was someone that everybody absolutely loved," Raymar said. "Her smile — contagious."
Audra Cerruto, an Education Foundation board member and associate professor in Molloy University's School of Education and Human Services, described Vaupel as "a woman for others."
"She was very interested in social justice and working toward the common good," Cerruto said. "She always led with compassion, integrity and respect for the dignity of every person."
Vaupel was a freelance marketing specialist and copywriter at Molloy, where she was also doing doctoral coursework focused on social justice. According to her LinkedIn profile, she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Adelphi University and studied English literature at the University of Oxford.
Her husband, Chris Vaupel, said that Cindy’s kindness extended far beyond the organizations where she volunteered. "I think the best way to describe her was she had this remarkable ability to kind of pull people into her orbit and make them feel valued and cared for and important," he said. "She knew how to connect with people. She was a doer."
Chris said that her spirit never wavered after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of stomach cancer that later spread to her liver.
"In the 16 months that she had cancer, she never complained," he said. "She always showed up at Sloan Kettering with a smile on her face. You'd never know that Cindy had cancer, because she didn't complain about it. She was a bright light."
In the days aftee her death, Chris said, he gained an even deeper appreciation for the impact his wife had made. "I can't tell you the number of people who came up to me [at her wake] and said, 'Chris, you never met me, but let me tell you, your wife was so helpful to me,'" he recounted. "That's how I started to realize how impactful of a life she led."
Travers said that one of Vaupel's greatest gifts was recognizing the strengths in others.
"She was very witty, incredibly thoughtful and saw people for who they are," Travers said. "She was always a spotter of talent. She was very good at connecting people and helping them understand what they were good at before they might have even known themselves."
In addition to her husband, Vaupel is survived by her daughters, Elizabeth, 21, and Catherine, 16, of Rockville Centre; and her parents, Maria and Jorge Oliveira, of Danbury, Conn. A funeral Mass was held last Saturday at St. Thomas More Church, at St. John's University in Queens.
In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center or the Vaupel Family Scholarship at St. John's University.
